Small Business Marketing: We Hold These Small Business Marketing Truths to be Self-Evident...

In today's world, it's difficult to find hard and fast truths in the world of small business marketing. But after helping hundreds of small businesses with their marketing, I have landed on a couple Small Business Marketing Truths. They are:

The most effective marketing comes from dialogues with your market - Too often we marketers presume to know what our market wants. Or even worse, we research our market, yet do it only once. The most powerful marketing efforts spring from ongoing dialogues we have with a market member. And the ongoing nature of these dialogues provides us with the up-to-the-minute knowledge to make shifts and adjustments in our marketing efforts.

There are no standard ways of marketing, only standard marketing conventions - Every business is different, and these differences show up in their seasonality, culture, product mix, pricing structures, vendors, partnership agreements, and hundreds of other facets. To say one marketing tool will produce the same response for every other company, is the worst kind of marketing ignorance.

Momentum and activity are 2 of the most valuable internal outcomes of marketing - When a small business begins a marketing initiative, the greatest returns, at first, are often internal. Employees sense a new energy and are naturally curious. Some may see that "we're finally marketing this company". It may take time for your market to generate external returns like leads, sales or revenues. But internally, if you pay attention, you'll see a host of more intangible rewards come to fruition immediately.

Marketing arguments must be backed up with rationale, otherwise they’re just opinions - Too many marketing discussions lack quantitative metrics to reinforce the points made. For example, I hear the comment "I don't like our advertising" all the time. And that's fine. But when I probe further with the question "Why?", the rationale ends there and I'm met with the response "I don't know, I just don't like it".

Ultimately, your market holds the final answer - Let's face it, we marketers don't know everything. And despite all our posturing in the board room, or the rationale based arguments we make (see above), if our market hates our new marketing, then they hate it. Period. Even if it wins awards, the fact that it generates few sales lands back in our lap. Be sensitive to what you know and don't, then look to your market for the final answer.

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